Former Deputy Leader of the United National Party, MP Ravi Karunanayake, has stated that the 2025 budget presented by the current government is a continuation of the budgets from the previous government (2015-2017) as well as the 2023-2024 budget introduced by former President Ranil Wickremesinghe when he served as Minister of Finance.
Karunanayake emphasized that the majority of state officials involved in preparing the 2025 budget were the same officials who contributed to budgets in 2017, 2024, and 2025.
He also rejected claims that the current budget was prepared to meet the requirements of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), pointing out that the IMF should not be blamed for everything positive or negative in the country.
The MP, who served as Finance Minister during the 16th debt settlement discussions between Sri Lanka and the IMF, explained that he did not accept all the conditions proposed by the IMF at the time, and that Sri Lanka did not need to implement all of their suggestions.
